IIT Kharagpur to launch 6-month Artificial Intelligence course

The Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur will launch a six-month Artificial Intelligence (AI) course at three centres in the country, a top official of the institute said Thursday. IIT-KGP, Director, Partha Pratim Chakrabarti told a press meet here that the certified programme is aimed at strengthening India's talent pool in Machine Learning and AI.

Chakrabarti said the courses, which will begin from March this year will be offered at IIT KGP's Kolkata facility, at IIT KGP's Kharagpur campus and at a rented premise at Bengaluru.

He said thousands of new jobs were being created in AI sector every year with AI growing at 10-15 percent on an annual rate and there was a need to have more skilled people in the AI sector.

"AI is the future which will more invade our lives in the coming days," Chakrabarti said. Head, Centre for Artificial Intelligence, IIT KGP, Prof Sudeshna Sarkar said, the course with 300 students will consist of 16 modules - each having 12-hour duration.

Around 2 lakh jobs in AI are expected to be created by 2020 in India, Sarkar said. She said the classes will be taken by IIT KGP faculty, reputed academic institutions, and industry experts. There will be 60 percent from the IIT KGP faculty and academics and 40 percent from industry who will be teaching the students in the 16 modules, Sarkar explained.

She said the demand is getting higher in AI in the country than the total number of AI-skilled professionals and there was a need to bridge that gap. The course modules have been carefully designed to cover mathematical and algorithmic foundations, AI fundamentals and statistical and machine learning methods.

"The courses will have a blend of fundamental theoretical principles as well as hands-on component and industry use cases and students will have the opportunity to work on live projects.

"Every course module will be based on assignments and exams and a certificate will be awarded based on successful completion of the modules. It will be rigorous," she said. The students will be selected competitively from working professionals and senior students.

Tools and platforms will be introduced to make the students, from working professionals and senior students, technologically competent and ready for jobs. The AI course, application for which commenced on January 2 for screening and shortlisting, will start from March 10, this year.